Youth Call Held Tonight

Topic:  Thanksgiving

Fun facts:

• Most Americans think of the Pilgrim as celebrating the first Thanksgiving in 1621 when actually there is a marker in Texas that says "Feast of the First Thanksgiving" in 1541.
•  It lasted for three days
• Foods:  Corn, Barley, Fowl including Wild Turkeys and waterfowl(like coyotes, wolf, etc.) and venison(meet of a game animal like deer)
• 52 of the Plymouth Pilgrim attended what is taught as the first Thanksgiving in 1621 and approximately 50 Native Americans
• The author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", Sarah Joseph Hale, was key in getting Thanksgiving officially recognized as a national holiday.

We found that Thanksgiving is tied to the bible.  It is said to have same strong similarities to the biblical Feast of Tabernacles; both celebrated in autumn.  Both were times of giving thanks to God for the blessings of the Harvest Season.  American Pilgrim were deeply religious people whose heritage was strictly found in the Bible, both Old and New Testament.

When asked what the youth and adults on the call was thankful for.  We all were grateful for our families and thankful to God for keeping us.  One of the youth was thankful to God keeping her grandparents alive and told us we should give thanks each day because you never know when you may see them again.  (That was great!!!)

I shared with the group that when I volunteered at the Homeless Shelter that I would often give thanks to God because I knew and still know it could be me.  I ran into people I knew from my hometown that made me even more thankful to God for keeping my mind stable and providing me a stable life.  That may seem small to some but it is always the small things we take for granted each day that I give God thanks for before thanking Him for the greater.

This Holiday what are you most thankful for in your life?